Handgun

ABSTRACT

A handgun includes a housing with a grip and a trigger guard, a first axle located within the housing, a trigger pivoting about the first axle and provided between the grip and the trigger guard, a second axle within the housing in a transition zone between the trigger guard and the grip, a two-armed lever pivotably mounted about the second axle against a spring force, a first arm of the lever, in a locking position, engaging the trigger, to be a safety, the lever with its second arm ending in a finger contact region of a firing hand, and projecting beyond the grip contour on a front of the grip such that the lever is pivotable when grasping the grip to release the trigger, the second lever arm, in the release position, being accommodated in a longitudinal slot provided in the transition zone between the trigger guard and the grip.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a handgun comprising a housing including a grip and a trigger guard, a trigger being pivotable in the space between the grip and the trigger guard about a first axle provided in the housing, and further comprising a lever provided as trigger safety, which lever is mounted to be pivotable about a second axle in the housing against the force of a spring, said lever engaging the trigger and projecting on the front side of the grip to beyond the contour of the grip so that the lever is pivotable when grasping the grip so as to release the trigger; said second axle is arranged in the transition zone between the trigger guard and the grip, and said lever is a two-armed lever; one arm engages the rear side of the trigger and the other arm ends in the contact region of the middle finger of the firing hand on the grip.

The weapon may be a pistol or a revolver of any construction and mode of operation. Therefore, for the sake of simplicity, in the following reference will always be made to a weapon, or handgun, respectively.

BACKGROUND ART

Common safeties of weapons may be arranged at various members of the chain of motion leading from the trigger to the firing pin, or cock, respectively. To make the weapon ready for firing, the safety must be removed. When the safety has been removed, the risk of an unintentional shot being fired is greater, e.g. if the weapon impacts on something. Therefore, in practice, it has been proven to be advantageous to place a safety element in the trigger itself so as to ensure rapid delivery of a shot in that the trigger finger of the firing hand concomitantly inactivates the safety present in the trigger by a simple pulling on the trigger.

Thus, e.g., it is known from DE 485 710 C to provide a lever behind the trigger or in the trigger of a pistol, which trigger engages somewhere in the above-mentioned chain of motion, and which forwardly projects beyond the trigger with one part so that the trigger finger will first press on that part, thereby finally removing the safety from the weapon, immediately before the shot is triggered. A disadvantage of this safety system is to be found in the restricted radial shaping possibilities of the trigger, in particular in the region of the contact of the trigger finger, something that one has to get used to and which has an unfavorable effect on the triggering behavior. A further disadvantage is that the contact area for the triggering finger on the trigger is partly reduced whereby the safety cannot be reliably deactivated and no shot will be fired at the decisive moment. This may happen easily if the fingers of the person shooting are either very voluminous or very thin. Furthermore, with such systems the distance to the back of the grip may be too short as a consequence of the position of the safety part being elevated relative to the trigger.

In general, safety systems requiring a re-modeling of the trigger and interfering in the chain of motion in the interior of the weapon will be complex to manufacture and, therefore, must be taken into consideration right from the start when constructing a weapon. From the standpoint of a consistent safety it is, moreover, desirable that a trigger safety, being so-to-speak the final safety instance, will also engage the last member of the chain of motion, i.e. the trigger itself. This desire has already been accounted for in the trigger safeties according to the U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,395,141; 1,430,662; 5,678,342, and 6,405,468.

In particular, the U.S. Pat. No. 1,395,141 of Reising discloses a two arm safety lever which engages with one arm into a notch of the trigger, to lock the trigger against inadvertent activation as long as the handle of the firearm is not grasped. The safety lever is biased into its locking position by a helical spring which is accommodated within a bore in the rear side of the other lever arm; however, such mounting of the spring spring is not satisfying, and it happens that the spring slips out of the bore, and is lost; furthermore, the bias force of the spring is sometimes too small to achieve secure re-engagement into the recess of the tigger after firing a shot.

The U.S. Pat. No. 6,405,468 discloses a rather complicated locking and releasing apparatus comprising an insertable grip portion operating as a kind of key to unlock the trigger.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,430,662 and 5,678,342 disclose safety levers for a trigger which in principle are similar to that of Reising, these safety levers being pivotally mounted in the transition area of the grip and the trigger guard, and being pivotable against the force of a spring to set the trigger free. However, in both cases, the spring means are defined by elastically deformable parts of the safety levers themselves so that the manufacturing and dimensioning of these lever means is rather cumbersome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Therefore, it is an object of the invention to take the above-indicated reservations into account and to provide a weapon with a trigger safety that is reliable, highly ergonomic (so as to allow for an unimpeded rapid delivery of shots), safe to operate, has a simple construction and is easy to mount.

The handgun according to the invention comprises

-   -   a housing including a grip and a trigger guard,     -   a first axle located within said housing,     -   a trigger provided in a space between said grip and said trigger         guard, said trigger being pivotable about said first axle,     -   a second axle located within said housing in a transition zone         between said trigger guard and said grip,     -   a two-armed lever mounted so as to be pivotable about said         second axle against the force of a spring, a first arm of said         lever, in a locking position, engaging said trigger on a rear         side thereof, to serve as a safety for said trigger, said lever         with its second arm ending in a region of contact of a finger of         a firing hand on said grip, and projecting beyond the contour of         the grip on a front side of said grip such that said lever is         pivotable when grasping the grip so as to release the trigger,         said second arm of the lever, in the release position, being         accommodated in a longitudinal slot provided in said transition         zone between said trigger guard and said grip, wherein     -   the spring is a leg spring, and said second axle passes through         said leg spring.

At the present handgun, the trigger is set free by actuating a lever which is mounted on the grip, and which can be actuated in an ergonimically suitable manner by a finger grasping the grip, preferably the middle finger. The lever acts on the last member of the chain of motion, i.e. the trigger itself. The chain of motion located therebehind is not interfered with, which allows for a very simple construction in addition to offering functional advantages. Moreover, the lever is accommodated in the transition zone between the trigger guard and the grip, mounting being particularly simple in this zone; the lever may also be configured as a short angle lever, thereby further reducing the space required. By the fact that the lever is accommodated in a longitudinal slot in the transition zone and that the spring is a leg spring passed through by an axle, the space required is particularly small.

Preferably, the lever engages in a recess on the rear side of the trigger. In a further development of the invention, the grip finally has a spur-like projection in the contact region of the finger of the firing hand. The elevated part of the lever thus is located between the trigger bow and the spur. This causes the middle finger of the firing hand to adopt a clearly defined position. In this way, a reliable handling of the safety device is achieved. Moreover, the elevated part of the lever may be colored so as to make the state of safety easier to recognize.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described in more detail by way of preferred exemplary embodiments illustrated in the drawings, to which embodiments, however, it shall not be restricted. Therein,

FIG. 1 shows a side view of a weapon according to the invention in the form of a self-loading pistol in the safe state;

FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal section in the region of the trigger of the weapon according to FIG. 1, with released safety;

FIG. 3 shows a side-view similar to FIG. 1 of a weapon according to a variant to FIG. 1; and

FIG. 4 shows a sectional view A-A according to FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In FIG. 1, a pistol is illustrated as an example of a weapon, having a housing 1 which includes a downwardly directed pistol stock or grip 2 and a trigger guard 5. Within the housing 1, there is a first axle 7 on which a trigger 6 is pivotably suspended. A slide 3 and a barrel 4 are only shown in outline. The functional members contained within the housing 1 and the slide 3 will not be discussed in detail because they are not relevant for the subject matter of the invention and therefore may have a usual, well-known structure.

As safety for the trigger 6, a lever 8 is provided which, in the example illustrated, is a two-arm angle lever that is pivotable about a second axle 9 and accommodated in a central longitudinal slot in a part of the trigger guard 5 and the grip 2; the slot has a contour substantially corresponding to that of the lever 8, as may be seen from FIG. 2. In the exemplary embodiment illustrated, the second axle 9 advantageously is arranged in the transition zone between the trigger guard 5 and the grip 2. The one arm 10 of the lever 8 engages with its end in a recess 13 on the rear side of the trigger 6, thereby locking and keeping the latter in the safety position. The other arm 11 of the lever 8 projects downwards slightly in front of the pistol stock 2, as may be seen from FIG. 1. This lever arm 11 extends downwards to an extent and, thus, projects beyond the contour of the pistol stock 2 such that the middle finger of the firing hand will easily press it down when the pistol is held in the usual way, i.e. pivot the lever arm 11 backwards, cf. the position shown in FIG. 2. The lever 8 is retained by a leg spring 12 in its secured position, in which the trigger 6 is blocked, cf. also FIG. 4, in addition to FIGS. 1 and 2.

In FIG. 1, the fingers of the firing hand which grasp the pistol stock 2 (middle finger, ring finger and little finger) are only quite schematically indicated in dot-and-dash lines and denoted by 14. The index finger in the space between the trigger guard 5 and the housing 1 is not illustrated.

In FIG. 2, a partial section of the pistol is shown with released safety. By grasping the pistol stock 2, the lever 8 has been pivoted against the force of the spring 12 in counter-clockwise direction by just as much that the end of the one, front lever arm 10 has left the recess 13 and the trigger 6 has been released. Only now a shot can be triggered.

The embodiment according to FIGS. 3 and 4 differs from that according to FIG. 1 merely by a projection having the form of a finger guiding spur or nose 20 that is arranged at the front side of the pistol stock on a level on which it will guide the middle finger of the firing hand to the other arm 11 of the lever 8.

Thus, the design in which the safety according to the invention has been carried out is made up of three simple, inexpensive parts. Despite its simplicity, it achieves the set object completely. 

1. A handgun comprising a housing including a grip and a trigger guard, a first axle located within said housing, a trigger provided in a space between said grip and said trigger guard, said trigger being pivotable about said first axle, a second axle located within said housing in a transition zone between said trigger guard and said grip, a two-armed lever mounted so as to be pivotable about said second axle against the force of a spring, a first arm of said lever, in a locking position, engaging said trigger on a rear side thereof, to serve as a safety for said trigger, said lever with its second arm ending in a region of contact of a finger of a firing hand on said grip, and projecting beyond the contour of the grip on a front side of said grip such that said lever is pivotable when grasping the grip so as to release the trigger, said second arm of the lever, in the release position, being accommodated in a longitudinal slot provided in said transition zone between said trigger guard and said grip, wherein the spring is a leg spring, and said second axle passes through said leg spring.
 2. The handgun set forth in claim 1, wherein said lever engages in a recess on the rear side of said trigger.
 3. The handgun set forth in claim 1, wherein a finger guiding projection is provided on said grip on its front side.
 4. The handgun set forth in claim 3, wherein said finger guiding projection has the shape of a spur. 